Conspiracy trackers are resurrecting scrutiny over suspicious stock market option transactions that suggest foreknowledge of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks. A large number of put calls were purchased during the week leading up to that day of infamy.

Michael Ruppert’s research, published in Oct. 2001 by the Centre for Research on Globalisation, estimates that close to $15 million in likely profits were garnered by unnamed entities who gambled on the expectations of severe drops in the prices of corporate stocks that would drop drastically with the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Those stocks tied to suspicious market activity by Ruppert were United Airlines, American Airlines, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., and Merrill Lynch & Co. The particular financial firm used to place put options on United Airlines stock was Deutsche Bank, which had acquired Banker’s Trust-A.B. Brown two years before.

Investment bank A.B. Brown had been acquired by Banker’s Trust in 1997, when Alvin Bernard “Buzzy” Krongard served as chairman of the former. In the course of the merger, Krongard became vice chairman of Banker’s Trust-AB Brown. In 1998, Krongard joined the CIA as counsel to CIA Director George Tenet.

Deutsche Bank acquired Banker’s Trust in 1999. By March 2001, Krongard was named CIA Executive Director by President George W. Bush. Deutsche Bank was the financial firm responsible for handling a large number of put options through the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

Put options give the contract owner the ability to gamble on expectations of price drops in stock shares. Buyers of put options have the choice of forcing their sellers to buy stock at a price set at the time of contract sale. In this case, some person, or persons went through Deutsche Bank in the last days before Sept. 11 to purchase extraordinarily large blocks of put options on United Airlines through the CBOE.

CBOE records reveal an extreme discrepancy between put and call volume in the days preceding Sept. 11. United Airlines put options between Sept. 6 and 7 numbered 4,744, while their call options for that period numbered only 396. During that same lead-up period, on Sept. 10, the CBOE handled 4,516 put options on American Airlines, compared to just 748 call options. Both United and American, of course, were the airlines affected by Sept. 11. None of the other airlines traded on the exchange revealed any such patterns – just the two which Sept. 11 would send plummeting in value.

These are patterns which intelligence analysts themselves typically track as indicators of terrorist and other criminal plots afoot. Option trades on several financial firms reveal equally suspicious patterns. Put options on Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. in the last three days before Black Tuesday numbered 2,157. Put options on Merrill Lynch & Co. numbered 12,215 over a four day period leading up to the Sept. 11 tragedy. Both firms each occupied more than 20 floors of the World Trade Center, and for the periods identified both companies saw puts far outnumbering calls on their stock.

Since then, Krongard served as agency liaison with Blackwater Security Consulting, leaving the CIA in 2004. In 2005, Krongard was appointed to oversee and coordinate worldwide operations of law firm DLA Piper.